New Feature For Woodville Motocross

JANUARY 6,
2013: Atiamuri’s Hadleigh Knight has extra
incentive to win when he races at the big annual New Zealand
Motocross Grand Prix at Woodville this season.

He won the
special Roddy Shirriffs Memorial Trophy at the
Honda-sponsored event last season – the prize for the
highest-placed rider in the feature race who is under the
age of 22 – and this year it will possibly be an even more
significant achievement, with an entirely separate race now
being set aside to recognise the feat at the January
25-26 event.

To increase the profile of the Roddy
Shirriffs Memorial Trophy, an additional race will be
slotted into the Sunday programme.

Instead of the young
125cc and MX2 (250cc) class riders being incorporated into
the all-capacities Invitation Feature Race, where they were
very likely to be overshadowed by riders on the vastly more
powerful 300cc and 450cc bikes, the younger riders on
smaller bikes will now battle exclusively among themselves
in their own race.

The winner will be awarded the trophy
on the podium immediately after the race by the Shirriffs
family and by Roddy Shirriffs’ best friend from those
days, Palmerston North businessman and former national
motocross champion Phil Turnbull.

With only 125cc and MX2 bikes in the race, it will
allow the Roddy Shirriffs Memorial Trophy contenders to
really lock handlebars and should make the race very
exciting for spectators too.

The Roddy Shirriffs Memorial
Trophy race is just one of more than 40 races on the
programme for the two-day event, this year’s 53rd annual
event again attracting the cream of New Zealand’s
motocross talent, as well as several competitors from
overseas.

Manawatu rider Roddy Shirriffs was only 21 years
old when he died while racing at the famous Devil’s Drop
motocross track at Wanganui in 1976.

It was later
discovered that his spark plus lead had come loose just as
he powered off the jump.

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